Lisa Meuser Workshop

While in residency, Lisa Meuser plans to research, write, and develop the first draft of a play or long-form monologue cycle titled "Freydís: Daughter of Fire." Freydís Eiríksdóttir, the daughter of Erik the Red, is a woman remembered only through conflicting male-authored sagas. She is powerful and polarizing, and yet rarely discussed beyond a footnote. The work will examine how history chooses its heroes, how women are written and rewritten depending on who controls the narrative, and what might happen if Freydís could speak for herself.

My family has always told me that we are related to Erik the Red, and while that ancestry was never formally documented, the oral history ignited a lifelong fascination with Icelandic stories. Freydís, in particular, has stayed with me—a woman remembered only through conflicting male-authored sagas. She is powerful and polarizing, and yet rarely discussed beyond a footnote. This residency will give me the space to reclaim her voice and explore the emotional truth behind her fragmented legacy. 

At Fensala Hall on Wednesday, June 24, she will share her process for and progress on this new work, including a reading and a writing component that participants can work on or use to inspire their own work.

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